At Least The Watermelons Accept Me

The current online trans zeitgeist: it's critical that trans women in media present a spotlessly feminine and harmless image. Trans women should not be depicted as toxic, abusive or dangerous, especially in ways traditionally associated with men. In fact, trans women can never be shown to be affected as people by being raised boys, and if they are, social conditioning related to gender MUST be incompatible with them in a way that results ONLY in innocent confusion and personal discomfort. We have decided to tacitly accept the radical feminist concept of "male socialization" by counter-arguing that trans women don't have it instead of deconstructing the ideological space it exists within. This will in no way contribute to shame trans women feel about their internal worlds, nor will it encourage pathological "checking behavior" where trans women feel they have to check whether they are acting like men.

gordon ramsey: is the food good here?

I’ve been trying to share this since I found out. They are moving onto harassing people in Memphis.

One of my biggest literary pet peeves is when historical or history-inspired fiction pretends that "courting" is a synonym for "dating". Usually it's just a one-to-one word swap--in a modern context, these characters would be dating, but this is olden times, so they call it courting instead. Sometimes they'll pretend there's a shade of difference, and that courting is a more serious exploration of marriage or something. But I read a lot of fiction that was actually written during these historical eras, and the word "courting" is never used like that.

the other mild historical disjoint i run into is when people talk about dating in the fifties like it automatically meant exclusivity. the whole reason we have the expression "going steady" is because the default was to or "go around with" or "go out with" multiple people. not in the sense of being in a stable polyamorous vee, but in the sense that archie is actively "seeing" both betty and veronica during the entire time the two girls are competing for his attention and they're both seeing other guys to make him jealous, and nobody involved considers this "cheating."

I ran into a truly wild cultural misunderstanding with my father some years ago, when I had to explain to him what “hookup culture” actually was, and that the thing he assumed it was was actually what we call “cruising culture”. His response was “how is that different from dating?” and when I explained how it was different, he said, and please note that this a direct quote: “That’s ridiculous! You can’t expect a woman to stop fooling around with other guys for anything less than a marriage proposal. I mean, she’s not a prostitute, you can’t buy her.” Now obviously there’s like… a lot to unpack there, but I think it’s pretty darn illustrative of a substantive cultural shift around the assumption of monogamy!